Weather Eye: storms at Waterloo

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On June 17, the day before battle commenced, an intense storm broke out at night and the fields of Waterloo turned to mud

There has been much debate about the contributions of Britain’s allies to Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 (Opinion, June 28, Letters Page, June 29, July 1, 2, 4, 5). But one other ally of the British has been overlooked — the weather.

Napoleon had sent Marshall Ney to head off Wellington but on June 17, the day before battle commenced, an intense storm broke out at night and the fields of Waterloo turned to mud. “The water ran in streams,” one English soldier recalled. “We were as wet as if we had been plunged over